EU inks Libya migrant deal

European Union leaders yesterday agreed a plan to curb mass migration from Libya at a special summit in Malta that was overshadowed by the challenges of Donald Trump and Brexit.

Faced with a surge in migrants this spring, the 28 leaders backed steps including helping the Libyan coastguard to stop boats to Italy and setting up temporary camps in the north African state.

But they will also, without Prime Minister Theresa May, discuss the future of the bloc at a turning point with Britain set to leave, and an increasingly difficult geopolitical situation with the new US administration.

French President Francois Hollande lashed out at Trump, who has predicted that other countries will follow Britain out of the EU and branded the transatlantic Nato military alliance obsolete.

"It is unacceptable that there should be, through a certain number of statements by the president of the United States, pressure on what Europe should or should not be," Hollande said as he arrived at the summit.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel meanwhile said Europe "has its destiny in its own hands" as it deals with a US administration that seems ambivalent to Europe and Nato.

The migrant plan involves funding and training the Libyan coastguard to make it better able to intercept migrant boats before they reach international waters, and helping neighbouring countries to close routes into Libya.

On the eve of the Malta meeting, Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni and his Libyan counterpart signed a deal in Rome on tackling people smugglers.

That deal provides for the establishment of EU-funded but Libyan-run camps to house migrants pending their "voluntary return or repatriation" to their home countries. Italy committed to funding medical services for the camps.

Rights groups warned that sending boats back to Libya could result in children being sent back to squalid detention centres.

May, Merkel and Hollande were all briefing their colleagues on their contacts with Trump, as Europe seeks to understand an unpredictable new president.

May was set to say she has won a guarantee of support for Nato from Trump and urge other EU leaders to meet commitments to spend two percent of GDP on defence, according to Downing Street.

EU President Donald Tusk, who is chairing the summit, warned in a letter to leaders ahead of the summit that Trump was a "threat" to the EU along with Russian aggression, an increasingly assertive China, and Islamic extremism.